Bills Gilmore learned a lot from first season / Wgr550.com

PHOTO BY BILL KOSTROUN

Howard Simon

howard@wgr550.com

Even though he has just one NFL season under his belt, Stephon Gilmore is clearly the player the Bills will rely on to be their shutdown cornerback.

The team's first round pick in the 2012 draft started every game last season and finished with a team high 16 passes defensed, tied for fourth best in the AFC and ninth in the NFL.  The next best total on the Bills was Bryan Scott with eight.

According to StatsPass, Gilmore was targeted 89 times last season and allowed three touchdown passes.  He was one of 30 defenders to have been targeted at least 85 times and his 3 TD's given up was tied for fourth fewest.

Gilmore had just one interception though and has been using the voluntary OTA's(Organized Team Activity) to improve his technique for season number two.

"Its mostly staying square at the line of scrimmage" Gilmore said during an interview on the WGR morning show on Tuesday.  "When I was guarding receivers last year, sometimes I opened up, just mainly trying to use my athletic ability instead of working on straight technique.  Its one thing I feel I’m getting better at."

Gilmore is excited about the new scheme being installed by Defensive Coordinator Mike Pettine since it puts a lot of responsibility on the cornerbacks and plays to Gilmore's strengths as a defender.

"“Its mostly a man to man scheme and a corner has to guard, most of the time, the best athletes on the other team most of the game", the University of South Carolina product said.  "This defense will allow us to show our ability to make plays”.

You can listen to the entire interview with Gilmore and hear him talk about Doug Marrone's sense of humor as well as his initial observations on drafted receivers Robert Woods and Marquise Goodwin.